Body Detoxification

You’ve been feeling more sluggish and tired lately. Your energy level just isn’t what it used to be. After you eat, all you want to do is take a nap. And even your thinking isn’t as clear and sharp as you’d like.

Even though you may be careful of what you put in your body, it's inevitable in our society that you'll be exposed to some external pollutants. According to Ayurveda, your digestive fire has to digest EVERYTHING that you're exposed to all of the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and exposures through the skin. It also has to digest all the emotions and thoughts that arise from everything that you're exposed to. This is a tall order, and most of us experience some toxic build-up that leads to blocked channels in the body and imbalances in our health.

Physical signs that these toxins have built up to include decreased energy; a heavy coating on the tongue; foul body, breath, and stool odor; indigestion and excessive flatulence; body aches; foggy thinking; and sleepiness after eating. It's always best to get checked out by your doctor to make sure these signs are not related to a diagnosable illness.

An Ayurvedic cleanse focuses on resetting that digestive fire, allowing it to rest and strengthen. The detoxifying nature also supports the body’s own natural mechanisms to remove built up toxins from the body. It’s a bit like cleaning out the pipes when the drain gets clogged, or hopefully even before the drain gets clogged.

While a full cleanse (called panchakarma) should be done under the guidance of an Ayurvedic practitioner, a simpler food-based home cleanse offers many of the resetting and rejuvenating benefits; this can be a great thing to do for yourself if you don’t have the time or flexibility to do a full program right away. The traditional Ayurvedic recommendation is that a cleanse should be done at the changing of each season, but you can also do the food-based cleanse whenever you feel that your body just needs a tune-up.

According to Ayurveda, we gather toxins every day; these disrupt the balance in the doshas...Ayurveda has developed a detoxification therapy which helps the body expunge harmful radicals. During detoxification, several therapies such as Synchronized massage, Pizhichil, Njavarakizhi, Choorna swedam, and Pathrapotala swedam lubricate the body channels and loosen the toxins accumulated in the body. These are then eliminated using ayurvedic, herbal enemas. This detox therapy is recommended to prevent diseases, cure digestive problems, manage lifestyle disorders and feel mentally and physically lighter.